FIRES BREAK OUT ACROSS NATION

[Anchor Lead]

It was an unusually warm weekend for February but strong dry winds caused big forest fires all across the country. The forest service started dispatching some 70 helicopters this morning to put out the fires.

[Pkg]

At 5:45 p.m. Sunday, forest fire alerts were upgraded to“serious” level at four locations – Andong and Yecheon in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, Hadong in Gyeongsangnam-do Province and Yeongdong in Chungcheongbuk-do Province. The Korea Forest Service issued an unprecedented “Serious” alert after determining it would be difficult to contain the fires during the day. This is because fire-fighting helicopters cannot be deployed at night. The largest blaze broke out in the village of Mangcheon in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. The National Fire Agency issued a level-two response. Mobilization orders were sent out to Daegu and other areas in southeastern Korea to assemble 5% of the national fire-fighting resources to nearby Inha Dam. It was very dry in this region on Sunday, with humidity dipping below 50%. Strong winds caused the fire to spread quickly towards residential areas. The fire that broke out in Yecheon-gun County, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province was just 100 meters east of a residential area.
Nearly 200 firefighters were deployed to the area bordering the forest and the houses.
A wildfire in Yeongdong-gun County in central Korea spread when embers were whisked away by strong wind blowing at 7 or 8 meters per second. Twenty-seven households returned home after evacuating, but they had to stay up all night, fearing the wildfire could spread to the village. The fire in the village of Akyang in Hadong-gun County at the foot of Jirisan Mountain in Gyeongsangnam-do Province continues to burn even after it destroyed more than 5 hectares of forest. Authorities are concerned it may cause more damage. Although it’s still February, it has been unusually dry this winter in the mountainous region in Gangwon-do Province and some parts of the Gyeongsang region, prompting authorities to issue low-humidity alerts for nearly a month. Sunday's high in Pohang reached nearly 25 degrees Celsius, almost as warm as in mid-to-late April. Compounded with strong winds, the balmy weather condition resulted in wildfires across the nation. The Korea Forest Service deployed some 70 helicopters on Monday morning to the four forest fire sites.